1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the fields of emergency is medical transportation in areas with poor emergency medical services, high-traffic congestion or poor road conditions. More specifically, the present invention relates to a motorized vehicle that maintains the patient and driver in one plane, with patient below and in complete view of the driver.
2. Description of the Related Art
Commonly, air evacuation and four-wheel ambulance are used for emergency medical transportation in developed areas with adequate roads and funding. In underdeveloped areas and congested urban environments inexpensive solutions are needed for emergency and non-emergency transportation. Currently bikes with trailers and motorcycles with sidecars are used. However, trailers and bikes are a poor combination for modern roads and motorized vehicular traffic. Motorcycle sidecars possess the inconvenience of width (almost equal to a car) and poor handling due to unequal weight distribution caused by the patient's position. The use of helicopters is expensive and impractical in urban areas due to buildings and overhead lines.
In time-critical disorders like cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction, severe respiratory disease and polytrauma, immediate response from the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) is crucial and the fastest means of transport to the patient must be chosen. Recently, due to the relatively long response times for car ambulances in urban traffic, the use of medical emergency motorcycles (MEM) has been advocated. Motorcycles have a significantly shorter response time than a regular ambulance. Motorcycles can also respond to locations where responding conventional ambulances are obstructed by traffic congestion, or cannot be readily responded to by a conventional ambulance due to non-availability in the area, or at locations where access by conventional ambulance is prohibited due to road configuration, construction etc.
Currently, motorcycle medics provide pre-hospital paramedical care to patients suffering from major trauma, chronic obstructive airway disease, asthma, diabetes mellitus, cardiac disease and unconscious patients by applying comprehensive patient assessment, cardiac care by cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation, intravenous/intramuscular injection therapy, and use of selected drugs. However, these medical emergency motorcycles are limited to “Treat in Place” until a conventional ambulance arrives to transport the patient/victim. Currently, medical emergency motorcycles are not equipped to transport the victim.
There is a need in the art for emergency medical transportation that is not cumbersome, inexpensive and short in length as compared to trailers while enabling the constant observation of patient status. Specifically, the prior art is deficient in a vehicle that keeps the patient and driver in one plane, thus enabling constant visual monitoring, said vehicle being a similar width as a standard motorcycle, inexpensive with low retail and operational cost and easy to control. The prior art does not provide an emergency medical transport with the capacity to transport the patient, while continuing to provide all advantages of the motorcycle medics who currently have to “Treat in Place” until a 4 wheeled-box ambulance arrives. The present invention fulfills this long-standing need and desire in the art. The present invention can serve as a primary medical transport in many developing nations, and in developed areas, it can be as valuable as needed in case of time sensitive emergencies, disasters and mass-casualty events.